Today’s Boston Globe highlights the full court press the Massachusetts biotechnology industry is making to convince Senator John Kerry to oppose the Independent Payment Advisory Board, Section 3403 of the Affordable Care Act.The IPAB, which is opposed by drug companies, some physicians, and the biotechnology companies, would create an independent board which would make recommendations for lowering Medicare costs if those costs continued to increase.Congress would have to vote these recommendations up or down without amendment – like military base closings.

The current debt ceiling debate shows how hard it is for Congress to lower the cost of the federal government – and many of the necessary solutions to our escalating health care costs will be easily subject to demagoguery like claims of “death panels” and “bureaucratic government throttling private-sector innovation.”